The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.
Interpretation
Art and inventions reflect the time but do not empower individuals.
Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that the artistic expressions and technological innovations of any given era are merely superficial adornments, representative of the culture and trends of that time, rather than true sources of strength or inspiration for humanity. This perspective emphasizes that the essence of human experience and dignity lies beyond the external trappings of art and invention.
In practice
In an art class, while discussing the essence of creativity, this quote can inspire students to look deeper than surface aesthetics.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
I remember loving sound before I ever took a music lesson. And so we make our lives by what we love.
I learned a little of beauty - enough to know that it had nothing to do with truth.
The writer must be able to revel and roll in the abundance of words; he must know not only the direct but also the secret power of a word. There are overtones and undertones to a word, and lateral echoes, too.
If you shoot with a billion cameras, then there's no perspective. You want to use one shot at a time, so it's better to discover what that is before you shoot, rather than trying to make something in the cutting room, and then it just becomes generic.
I chose poetry. Actually, poetry chose me.
Do you know that every great thing in the history of art and every beautiful thing in life is actually what you call nasty or has been caused by feelings that you would call nasty? By passion, by love, by hatred, by truth. Do you know that?
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